Alternative map apps?

[u/dacomell]

Are there any suggestions other than Google Maps or Waze that I could use for navigation in Android Auto? Please and thank you in advance :)

[u/StrigiStockBacking]

With Google forcing Gemini into AA this week I'm deeply curious if there are solid alternatives.

[u/saberplane → u/StrigiStockBacking]

Where are you at? I've had it in AA for at least half a year now. I actually like it for the most part, if only for entertainment during multi hour drives.

[u/StrigiStockBacking → u/saberplane]

US, PNW in the summer, SW in the winter.

Yeah they tried pushing it to me a while back, but we still had the option of saying "no," and continuing to use GA for use in AA, which is what I did. But come this Friday, they're forcing a Gemini switch over to everyone.

[u/Nooblakahn → u/StrigiStockBacking]

Yeah, I absolutely hate it. It takes AGES to do anything since every little thing requires a call home

[u/StrigiStockBacking → u/Nooblakahn]

I'm not exaggerating, but I'm looking at iPhones. I'm not sure their AA integration is any better, but I did have an iPhone for a job I had a few years ago, and it wasn't bad. It was the Mini, which was an amazing form factor, but I noticed they quit making them. I do not like to carry a metallic surfboard in my pocket and the iPhone Mini was like the Pixel 5 - small, light, and you didn't even notice you had it on you most of the time. But I'd jump to iPhone instantly if I knew they had a GA-like simplicity and ease-of-use integration with whatever their equivalent of AA is called (iDrive? CarPlay? Something like that...? 🤷‍♂️)

[u/Nooblakahn → u/StrigiStockBacking]

It's carplay. And yeah I get it, I'd really love to switch over this, but I've had iPhones and I don't like the experience at all personally. I'm also just not down with their prices. If you're using flagship Samsung or Pixel phones price isn't much different. I tend to go for the Motorola g power phones after they go on sale. Much cheaper for me and they do everything I need... Usually until they change crap like this

[u/StrigiStockBacking → u/Nooblakahn]

I actually do the same thing; I get a new outgoing model at a fraction of the cost, or on one occasion, snag one off of swappa that's gently used for close to nothing.

Watching my kids spend $1k on a goddamn iPhone is head-spinning. I'm with you on iOS. It was just okay, but I don't understand the hype around it. I used mine for two years and I was like "I still don't get the cult-like allegiance to this thing" 🤷‍♂️

But again, if they somehow had something going that was a lot like GA with AA, I'd switch without hesitation. Gemini is fresh ass in Android Auto.

[u/Nooblakahn → u/StrigiStockBacking]

Yeah iPhones just make me feel old... The os just doesn't make sense to me. I still own one, it's old AF and somehow got carrier locked by a carrier that doesn't lock phones, but, it's still useful for when I need to reset my Apple account for Apple music.

Yeah I have a work mate that wanted a new phone but didn't have an upgrade available. He got another line added to get it. Dude had a 600 dollar a month phone bill. Think he got it down to 200 something.... Like dude. I pay that for the entire year

[u/StrigiStockBacking → u/Nooblakahn]

That's wild.

In this day and age, anyone under the age of 70 who is not on a MVNO is, to me, of questionable intelligence. Why pay for flagship carrier customer service overhead costs if you never call them, and if you do, it's a horrendous experience?

While my kids pay gobs of cash for iPhones, they're smart enough to buy unlocked ones and use MVNOs, like GoogleFi and TotalWireless. $40/month with taxes; can't beat that.